May your tail wag, your belly be full, and may you have a forever family to rub your tummy and scratch behind your ears. --------- the collies' blessing to other dogs

Saturday, April 25, 2009

Goodbye Charlie

Contemplating Charlie's crossing

ANZAC DAY 2009

Today, Anzac Day 2009, our good friend Charlie crossed the rainbow bridge. She was a grrreat Sheltie, whose mom has a heart of gold. We feel her mom’s pain and wish we could make it go away. We know it is always good to look back and remember. So here we go.

Charlie’s blog debuted on 2 June 2007, while ours started about a week later on 10 June. We were welcomed to the DWB family as # 506 on 17 June, while Charlie joined DWB as # 675 on 14 October. It took us until 4 November for us to sniff out Charlie and said hi. In that first post we read, she was remembering her brother Higgins. We were fortunate enough to be the seventh dog to sign her guest book.

Charlie remembering Higgins

Reverend Lady Charlie the Antediluvian

of Goosnargh on the Carpet

Charlie’s popularity soo sky rocketed past us. We were fortunate to celebrate Charlie’s 14 and 15th Barkdays on 20 December in 2007 and 2008. Charlie had a lot of friends and went on a many cyber adventures. CCCSI (Cat/Canine Crime Scene Investigators) comes to mind. Our favorite adventure was the Hijinx cruise back on 8-11 May 2008. She went on a virtual tour of the Caribbean and stopped by Key West to have some pirate dog grog with us. It was there we hooked up with our good pal Mack. Charlie gave us four awards, helped us find our noble titles and we treasure it all. We will miss you Charlie, old gal.

As for Charlie’s mom, our hearts and thoughts go out to you. We hope you continue to visit us, we so love your gentle words. You made a tough call and if you doubt yourself, please once again read the word from a hundred years ago. On Anzac Day 2009, you were the one in the arena.

"It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs, and comes short again and again, because there is no effort without error and shortcoming; but who does actually strive to do the deeds; who knows the great enthusiasms, the great devotions; who spends himself in a worthy cause; who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who know neither victory nor defeat." ~Theodore Roosevelt~With Dog Dad, we do a twenty-one woof salute.

13 comments:

Collies -- and Joe -- We read your response to Charlie's death -- whom sadly we never really got to know -- and as we thought about Teddy Roosevelt's beautiful words, we thought how relevant they are to today's world. The cheap shots, the criticisms of everything that isn't just quite like one might want it to be, the trivial quibbles -- instead of cheering for those who are out there in the field trying to do their best.

It is really so sad, we will all for sure miss Charlie..we didnt join DWB till august 07, and i cant member when we had the honor of meeting her..she reminded me of angel Lacylulu, both were older dogs, but soo loved by their hoomans..heehee she use to kid about everybody calling her a boy cause her name was Charlie..i will always remember that..

Oh my, Collies, you've made the most moving and beautiful tribute a human and dog could ever wish - how it touches me heart! - I am writing through tears - what a beautiful post this is, and so many wishes from others have come to our blog via yours. Yours was one of the first blogs I began frequenting when I first learned there were more animal blogs out there (took me a while to figure that out) and I have always looked forward to your wonderful posts. This one is no exception. Thank you with all my heart.

Key West Collie Time

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The Collies

Essex and Sherman are aunt and great nephew. Essex is a friendly, but reserved female tri-color. Sherman is a brave happy outgoing male sable & white. Deacon is a our dog angel that watches over our pack. He crossed the bridge before his fifth barkday.